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Local Readiness Team Lead Kick-Off Meeting

May 16, 2007

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Agenda

• Project Café Purpose

• Business Process Improvement Goals

• Timelines

• Project Café Update

• Implementation Readiness Overview

• Implementation Readiness Team and

Responsibilities

• Local Readiness Team Lead Meetings &

Activities

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Project Café Purpose

Project Café (also known as the Financial Management Systems Replacement Initiative) is charged with replacing Northwestern University’s current financial system, CUFS, with the following software:

• PeopleSoft Financials

(Chart of Accounts, General Ledger, Post-Award, Supply Chain)

• InfoEd

(Grants Pre-Award)

• Cognos Planning

(Budget)

• FAMIS

(Facilities Management)

• Other 3rd Party Software

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• Improve efficiency, timelines, and customer serviceo Eliminate the need for redundant data entryo Reduce paper-based routingo Increase self-service capabilities by distributing functions

to end users

• Simplify and standardize University-wide processes and practices, to the extent practicable

o Minimize variations in business processes across the University

o Improve adherence to existing (and new) policies and procedures

Business Process Improvement Goals

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Business Process Improvement Goals

• Improve data qualityo Enter information as close to the original source as possibleo Use pull-down menus to reduce data entry errors

• Enable managers to focus on higher level considerations and decisions

o Use a greater degree of post-transaction review rather than pre-transaction approval

o Manage risk with system controls and meaningful exception reports

o Provide reporting that is timely, easy to use, and meets the needs in formats that are relevant to the research and teaching community

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Project Café Timeline

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Café Activities Timeline

A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S

Requirements Gathering Test Conversion/Deployment

Design/Build Training/End User Assurance

PeopleSoft

Cognos Planning

FAMIS

20082007

InfoEd

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Project Café Update

• InfoEd

o finishing design/build phase

o starting business process and user acceptance testing

o training development in process

• PeopleSoft: working on designing and building modifications

• Cognos Planning: working on requirements gathering

• FAMIS: working on requirements gathering

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PurposeEnsure that all members of the Northwestern community who are impacted by the new systems are consulted, informed, trained, and prepared to successfully use the new systems.

Goals• Assist all affected units to anticipate and prepare for change

in workflow, policy, and business processes• Identify new responsibilities associated with new and changed

business processes• Assist the units in socializing new terminology, distributing

communications, identifying end user hardware requirements, security, and training needs

Implementation Readiness Overview

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Implementation Readiness Team (IRT)

• Project Café Readiness Liaisons

• Process Owners Team (team created for each functional area within Project Café)

• Local Readiness Team Leads (LRTLs)

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Local Readiness Team Leads (LRTL)

Primary Responsibilities• Learn about impending process changes and and impacts to

school/department• Help prepare school/department for necessary business process,

policy, and system changes as identified by Project Café • Provide feedback from the school/department to the Project• Receive communications from Project Café and disseminate to

school/department• Determine appropriate access levels and training for end users in

school/department• Ensure end users register for and attend training• Identify technical gaps in school/department based on Project Café

hardware/software requirements• Coordinate Project Café requests for user participation

(user acceptance testing, data clean-up)

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Process Owners Team

Primary Responsibilities• Help define implementation scope and change impact• Assist in determining possible barriers to change across the University • Identify functional requirements and provide input to configuration

and functional designs• Assist in the design of policies and procedures based around the

functionality of the software• Provide input to the identification of central and unit security roles • Assist in the preparation and review of testing materials• Participate in test execution • Review converted data and perform data clean-up• Assist in the communication of changes to processes and policies• Assist in the creation and review of training materials

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Project Café Readiness Liaisons

Primary Responsibilities• Facilitate meetings of the Local Readiness Team Leads• Provide information about implementation-specific readiness

requirements• Develop implementation schedules and milestones• Provide ongoing, timely, and relevant communication• Provide consultation as needed• Develop and disseminate targeted communications and

resource materials for LRTLs and end users• Provide end user training• Prepare checklists and templates

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• Monthly Implementation Readiness Team Meetingall members should attend

o Review project timeline and statuso Discuss approach for conducting project tasks

(training, end user support, testing, communications, etc.)o Discuss overarching process and procedure changes and their impactso Address questions and provide feedbacko Review activities on the Unit Readiness Plan

• Meetings on implementation specific topics (e.g., InfoEd) will be held as necessaryonly members from affected schools/departments need attend

o Demonstrate the new softwareo Discuss implementation-specific changes and impacts to business

processes and procedures

LRTL Meetings

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What you should do at your home location

• Communicate information at your school/department standing meetings

o Use presentation materials from LRTL meetingso Obtain feedback and address questions (or forward them to us)

• Perform activities noted on the Unit Readiness Plano Assign end users to appropriate security role(s)o Assist end users in training registration

• Create school/department distribution lists for each implementation to assist in disseminating information

LRTL Activities

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Questions?

Feel free to contact us with any questions…

Tiffany CleaverImplementation Readiness Team LeadAssistant Functional Manager tcleaver@northwestern.edu

OR

projectcafe@northwestern.edu